Venezuela Starts Clearing ONGC Videsh Ltd’s $449 million Dues

Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA has paid ONGC Videsh Ltd USD 32 million from crude oil it sold to Reliance Industries as the first step towards clearing nearly half a billion dollars of dues it owes to the state-owned firm.

OVL Managing Director Narendra K Verma said Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) had last month shipped a cargo of crude oil to Reliance Industries and the payment it realised from it has now been given to OVL. “We hope this is this beginning of clearing our past dues is sustained and the mechanism continues,” he said. Venezuela has not paid OVL, the overseas investment arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), USD 449 million of accrued dividend for four years. This dividend pertains to the San Cristobal field, where OVL has 40 per cent stake and PDVSA the remaining 60 per cent.